Slip and Fall

A property owner isn't automatically responsible every time someone falls on their property. In most states, the injured person has to show that the owner knew about the hazard, or should have known about it, and had a reasonable opportunity to fix or warn about it. That's called 'notice,' and it's usually the single hardest element of a slip-and-fall claim.

Many states classify visitors into categories, and the property owner owes a different level of care to each:

• Invitees — customers in a store, for example — are owed the highest duty of care
• Licensees — social guests — are owed a middle level of care
• Trespassers — generally owed only a duty not to be harmed intentionally, with limited exceptions

Because notice is the central issue, evidence focuses on proving the hazard existed long enough that the owner should have caught it. That usually means photos of the hazard taken immediately, witness statements, surveillance footage (which is often overwritten quickly), incident reports, and cleaning or inspection logs. Getting these preserved early is often the difference between a provable claim and a stalled one.

Insurers commonly argue the hazard was 'open and obvious' (meaning the visitor should have seen and avoided it), that the hazard had just appeared and there wasn't enough time to fix it, or that the visitor's own inattention caused the fall. Comparative-fault rules then reduce or eliminate the claim based on the visitor's share of fault.